Jul 12 2009
It’s simply amazing, how Obstructionists operate
Step Right Up!
This magic elixir, will solve everything —
It’s called “More of the Same”
(aka “Private Insurance knows best.”)
It’s simply amazing what Paid Shills will say
to keep their Wealthy Patrons rolling in clover.
Jul 11 2009
A Day In The Life Of A Georgia Lobbyist
Her phone rings. It is another board member, and he is at the Capitol. We are off to the third floor and a day that accelerates from 0 to 60 very quickly. Among the sea of suits, we find her guest and connect him with Rep. Stephens, who will escort him onto the floor of the House for a visit.
Immediately thereafter, we meet up with the lobbyist for the Department of Economic Development, which houses the tourism budget and serves as the state’s marketing apparatus for the industry. They discuss the House budget cuts, pending legislation and chart strategy. During that conversation she is approached by another lobbyist from the Association County Commissioners of Georgia who relays concerns over a hotel tax bill introduced a day earlier. Joy assures her the bill is a temporary bill and that a substitute is coming. […]
Not much later, the lobbyist for the Georgia Municipal Association approaches Joy expressing similar concerns. Joy again explains a substitute is coming.
Shhhh! it’s a secret!
Jun 21 2009
Did you Vote for Change?
for Accountability; for leveling the playing field; for National Health Care?
Well, your vote apparently doesn’t carry as much weight as it use to.
Here’s one of the main reasons why:
U.S. Democracy Under Siege — Senate Debate Excerpts
Excerpts from the Congressional Record of the October 14, 1999 Senate debate.
The following is a tabulation, for clarity, of the figures cited by Mr. Feingold:
– 1980 1992 1996 Total soft money contributions to parties ($millions) under 20 86 about 250 # of donors giving over $200,000 – 52 219 # of donors giving over $300,000 – 20 120 # of donors giving over $400,000 – 13 79 # of donors giving over $500,000 – 9 50 # of companies giving over $150,000 to each of the political parties (“double givers”) – 7 43
(emphasis added)
http://urielw.com/campfin.htm
 |
There has been a tidal wave taking place, that threatens to swamp our fragile system of Democracy. Indeed it probably already has … |
Jun 19 2009
If you’re still thinking that Obama is your friend, if you’re still thinking that somehow he offers up something other than “hope”, well here’s one of those little stories that could be the proverbial straw-that-breaks-the-camel’s-back.
I wish I was making this up. I wish this was actually from The Onion. But it isn’t.
Judge rejects argument Cheney needs to be shielded from Daily Show
“Justice Department lawyers told the judge that future presidents and vice presidents may not cooperate with criminal investigations if they know what they say could become available to their political opponents and late-night comics who would ridicule them.”
This is the Obama administration, folks. This is not the Bush/Cheney administration. This is Obama’s Justice Department doing this.
Upon reading this, my first instinct was to just turn away from the computer and not come back for a good long time.
But I thought I’d share it here first.
“If we become a fact-finder for political enemies, they aren’t going to cooperate,” Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Smith said. “I don’t want a future vice president to say, `I’m not going to cooperate with you because I don’t want to be fodder for ‘The Daily Show.'”
This is a sad time for America. Very sad indeed.
We need a new party. This one is exactly like the other one.
Jan 27 2009
There is a tendency among those of us who value freedom of speech to believe that the virtuous thing to do is to speak out, access be damned. I don’t know that that is always the right impulse. I don’t know that I did the right thing in trading access to people trapped in Burma for a few opinion pieces critiquing vapid Western media coverage of the country. The world does not need another American reporter declaring the junta barbaric and incompetent, a position for which there is almost no opposition in the United States. Indeed, those intent on raising awareness have done harm by encouraging both economic sanctions and hardliners within the junta. I have never understood how American “awareness” of the Myanmar situation was supposed to help the Burmese trishaw driver surviving on two meals a day.
There is one young woman in Myanmar who continues to write me from time to time, thanking me for the time I spent coaching her toward competent journalism. I spent months teaching her how to structure a piece, a skill that does not come at all naturally to people raised in countries without an independent journalistic tradition. Surely helping her shape a single article was more important than any Burma-related op-ed I’ve written. And yet I’ve traded the right to go back-to have influence over individual lives-for the right to spill some ink. I am a journalist by nature, and it’s possible that I would do it all over again. But there is at least an argument to be made for playing by the rules of a paranoid military dictatorship to maintain access to the lives inside.
Kerry Howley, Sad Thoughts on Being Kicked Out of Military Dictatorships
Dec 07 2008
cross posted from The Dream Antilles
La Bloguera Yoani Sanchez
Cuban Blogger Yoani Sanchez, the 2008 Gasset y Ortega Prize winner for digital journalism, and her husband, Reynaldo Escobar, have been forbidden by the Cuban government from attending a blogger conference in Cuba.
Join me 90 miles South of Miami.
Oct 18 2008
is none of the above.
By now we’ve all heard that McCain’s “Joe the Plumber”:
It reminded me of something, but I couldn’t put my finger on it till this morning when 30,000 demonstrated in Baghdad against the US occupation, with the encouragement of the man inevitably described in US media as “anti-American cleric Moqtada Al Sadr“. So this might be the perfect time to point out that Al Sadr:
In short, the only thing our press has been reporting correctly are his popularity and his name.
Sep 03 2008
It’s not so much free speech under attack, as Freedom of Assembly.
Working solo, I’ve been able to fly signs right up to the gates where the delegates are searched before entering Excel. Anything that appears to be a group over 5, however, gets excluded from the perimeter.
Easiest access is by taxi. The police stereotype of bad demonstrator has you entering on foot.
During Mondays brawl by the river, I was directly behind the National Guard line, posing with my “This is a test of the Emergency Free Speech System” sign. The only police interference with my activity was an admonishment to “wait for the walk sign.”
Tuesday, Vermin Supreme and I worked the line of delegates awaiting searches. Vermin had his everpresent bullhorn. “To assist in the process, please remove your shoes. Then drop your pants and spread your cheeks for the rectal probe. President McCain asks that you retain this position for the next four years.”
I was upstream, at first flashing a “STOP GOVRERNMENT SPYING” banner, then riffing with Vermin. “You folks look like you’re here for a funeral. Where’s the Republican Team Spirit?” Vermin would then try to lead them in a cheer. “When I say ‘John’, you say “McCain. Got it?” JOHN… silence. JOHN… silence.
Whenever a delegate grinned at our antics, I’d point him out. “That one smiled. He’s an infiltrator. Waterboard him.”
I had the exiting delegates to myself. “Funeral’s over, time to liquor up!”
Aug 22 2008
cross posted from The Dream Antilles
Evidently, it’s not a really good idea to assert free speech rights in China or to protest the policies of the Chinese government. If you’re Chinese, as I previously wrote, you can be sent to “re-education through labor” if you apply five times to get a permit to protest legally. And what if you’re a US Citizen and you protest? You are summarily punished without trial. Or deported. After all, protests about freedom for Tibet, or anything else that might offend you about the Chinese Government’s policies, might tarnish the luster of the perfect, mechanistic Olympics.
The New York Times reports:
Six Americans who were taken into custody on Tuesday as they tried to protest against China’s rule in Tibet have been given 10-day detentions, the Chinese police said Friday.
But members of their organization, the New York-based Students for a Free Tibet, said that they had no information about four other protesters – two Americans, a German and a British citizen – who were detained early Thursday during a protest near the National Stadium. Extrajudicial detentions are a common form of punishment for Chinese dissidents, but are rarely handed out to foreigners, who are often deported almost immediately after being taken into custody. Members of Students for a Free Tibet have staged eight protests involving 55 people since the Olympics began on Aug. 8, and human rights advocates said the government might be seeking to deter those contemplating similar activities in the Games’ final days.
/snip
Reached by telephone, Public Security Bureau officials declined to comment, but faxed a two-sentence statement explaining that the six Americans had been “apprehended for upsetting public order.” The statement, which did not include the detainees’ names, said the men were being held at the Dongcheng police station.
You read that right. Extrajudicial detentions means punishment without trial. And the offense is “upsetting public order.”
What exactly did these protesters do that so grievously “upset public order”?
Most of the organization’s demonstrations have involved unfurling “Free Tibet” banners or displaying Tibetan flags, which are illegal in China. In the latest action, four protesters raised their fists and shouted slogans while waving a Tibetan flag near the National Stadium. As at the other protests, the participants were quickly bundled off by plainclothes police officers.
So. The protesters are summarily detained and punished without trial. But it gets more interesting:
Two photographers for The Associated Press were also roughed and taken into custody, according to news agency reports and press freedom advocates. The police questioned them for 30 to 40 minutes and took the memory cards from their cameras.
The Foreign Correspondents Club of China has received dozens of complaints from foreign journalists who have been detained, trailed or had equipment damaged by the police.
How dare anyone so grievously upset public order during the Olympics! How dare newspeople and photographers actually do their jobs and record the protests! Didn’t Chairman Mao write, “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend?” Well maybe. But he must not have meant during the Olympics.
Aug 21 2008
Cross Posted at Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/story/…
Yesterday there was supposed to be a trial in DuPage County.
Two anti-war protestors were promised their day in court after 15 months of appearances and continuances and postponements.
They were ready.
The prosecution had the witness and the arresting police officer.
Jeff Zurawski and Sara Hartfield had truth and about 48 supporters on their side.
Judge Sutter was ready.
Aug 21 2008
Uggghhh. It is a sad day when people on the Left turn against Keith Olbermann for any reason.
KO is one of the sole voices pissing into the hurricane/tsunami of disinformation and neo-con propaganda from the Murdoch Empire and all Minions Fox and elsewhere… and people ask him to stop his Editorials.
Let Kieth be Kieth.
These are the same People who attacked Reverend Wright for speaking Truths in this country.
If Obama stayed Obama, a man who admired Rev. Wright, he would not be losing ground via handlers and media-whores.
Why is it that people are uncomfortable with Truths? Oh they claim to want Truth, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their TV pleasure viewing the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic games, the grandiose hoopla and the shiny young athletes.
America likes its Public Service Announcements snuggled in minute sound bytes during the breaks of their obsessive American Idol episodes… it makes their guilty pleasure of being brainless hedonists ease up a little to be able to yell “Right On” at a commercial that says “Green Power”.. all while turning up their Air Conditioning and keeping the volume on their TV’s cranked up to Prime Numbers.
But WATCH a whole documentary or turn off the TV and read a book about it? Too depressing, man. They don’t want a bowl of whole-grain truths, when they can sprinkle a little fiber on their processed Sugar Puffs.
More about real heroes below.
Aug 21 2008
cross posted from The Dream Antilles
The Chinese Government is very afraid of these two women.
Seventy-nine-year-old Wu Dianyuan, on the right, and her neighbor Wang Xiuying, 77, followed the law. They applied for a protest permit. They wanted to protest inadequate compensation for the taking of their homes in preparation of the Olympics. They asked for the permit five times. They didn’t get it. They ended up instead being sentenced to a year of “re-education through labor.”
According to NY Times:
Two elderly Chinese women have been sentenced to a year of “re-education through labor” after they repeatedly sought a permit to demonstrate in one of the official Olympic protest areas, according to family members and human rights advocates.
The women, Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, had made five visits to the police this month in an effort to get permission to protest what they contended was inadequate compensation for the demolition of their homes in Beijing.
During their final visit on Monday, public security officials informed them that they had been given administrative sentences for “disturbing the public order,” according to Li Xuehui, Ms. Wu’s son.
Mr. Li said his mother and Ms. Wang, who used to be neighbors before their homes were demolished to make way for a redevelopment project, were allowed to return home but were told they could be sent to a detention center at any moment. “Can you imagine two old ladies in their 70s being re-educated through labor?” he asked. He said Ms. Wang was nearly blind.
Join me in Beijing.